13:00 AT, Day Thirty Four | Near The Cinder Keep

  I look up from my resting place in Ray’s lap. Our last group just arrived and it is time to begin.

  Before us is a massive tower, stretching so high that it seems to go beyond the clouds. It is made of a solid black material that seems to absorb all light. Liquid mercury flows down the sides, creating beautifully reflective surfaces, casting the midday light in every which way.

  “It’s beautiful..” Ray says, jaw hanging open.

  “That it is darling. Now, how about we blow it up?” I say, our eyes meeting.

  She smiles, “yeah, let's show that queen what we can do!”

  Our convoy arrived at the foot of the tower known as Cinder Keep two days ago. Apparently at the top rests a great beast, one that can strike fear into even the most veteran soldiers, the queen of dragons.

  Ray and I quickly rushed up to the door of the tower, and were met with a familiar message.

  ‘Do you wish to begin the Ascent of Cinder Keep?

  Party size is limited to a maximum of 2500. Recommended composition: At least 100 great-level and 2400 high-level combatants.

  Current Party: 114% recommended power. Estimated Difficulty: Normal

  Reward: Authority to challenge The Queen of Dragons

  Contestants, do you wish to begin your ascent?

  Yes / No’

  We are ready. After seeing the message two days ago, we immediately sat down to roll lots of gacha. So much in fact that we managed to acquire many great-levels, bringing our total to 114. They got basic training along the route here and have finally arrived to join us at the keep.

  Without hesitation, Ray and I click yes.

  Immediately, the grand doors of the keep start to open with a great creaking and grinding sound. It's like they haven't been open for millenia, which given our current location, may literally be the case.

  Ray takes my hand and holds it gently. “Ko, we are gonna rock this ascent thingy!”

  “Of course we are, Ray. We are the Moonlight Duo after all.”

  She leans up to kiss me on the cheek and then shouts loudly, “Luce lunae per aspera ad astra et ultra!”

  “Pro luce lunae!” Our army calls back, ready to take on this keep alongside us.

  We charge into the keep, the thundering sound of footfalls and orders shouted over comms behind us.

  The moment I step inside the keep, I can feel the atmosphere shift. The temperature increases drastically, and the air seems to be a lot heavier. We emerge into a large room, with four statues in the shape of small dragons inside of it.

  Of course, the moment we step inside, they start to move, clearly some sort of automaton dragons.

  A voice seems to project itself into our minds, very ominously and with a scary sensation around it.

  You have entered The Cinder Keep. Exit is no longer possible, you must ascend. Defeat all who stand in your path.

  “Hey Ray, you up for a bit more dragonslaying?”

  “Of course darling, let's go roast us some big lizards. Then we can come back and relax with a nice session of headrubs.” Ray says with a very murdery smile.

  “You read my mind.” I say, mimicking her smile, though maybe with a bit less murderyness.

  We charge into the room and are immediately met with a wall of flame that surges toward us. These dragons really don't want to play around, how unfortunate.

  For them.

  Ray and I impact the first dragon like a nuclear bomb. I shatter its skull while she cleanly slices one of its legs off. It quickly falls to the ground with a sad creaking sound. I guess the robots just aren't the same as the real thing, what a shame.

  All around us, bullets and blades end the other three dragons. We make quick work of the first floor, which is good. According to a display that has appeared in our vision, there are twenty five floors to get through.

  We keep the celebrations brief and quickly move onto the second floor. Some sort of maze, full of various beasts. Some of which we have seen in the arena, and others we presume are from the biomes we haven't seen yet.

  We make quick work of it.

  We crush floor after floor.

  It isn't until we get to the 10th floor that we actually find a challenge, in the form of the six legendary beasts.

  Vesir and Achilles are present, along with; a large monkey, a snowy wolf, a small prairie dog, and a black panther with a pelt that seems to camouflage itself.

  These must be all of the first tier legendary beasts, though they are clearly much weaker than the actual legends, as they have no health bars.

  Leaving the rest to strategize and plan, Ray and I charge in. Eager to help them get some data to plan around – totally not just because we are a pair of battle-mad savages.

  I face off against Vesir. Using my knowledge, I strike at the knees, moving far faster than the poor beast. Vesir collapses to the ground, but not before setting off a massive field of lightning which scorches me nicely.

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  Unfortunately for Vesir’s friend the money, it also charges up my spear with energy. I discharge the energy right into the monkey’s skull, instantly slaying it. The poor monkey doesn't even get a chance to use a skill against me. I move back around and finish off Vesir.

  In this time, it seems that Ray has handled Achilles along with the panther. She has a few new scratches on her armor, likely due to confusion at the panther’s temporary invisibility. I bet that was an interesting fight, too bad we didn't get to fight it for real. The rest of our forces have also started moving, charging right towards the wolf and prairie dog. The wolf howls, only to be met with a thundering cheer of ‘pro luce lunae.’

  The army impacts them, slaying them in quick order.

  Some small part of me almost feels bad for the beasts, then I remember that we are in a war and I rush over to Ray. I give her a quick hug and kiss and then we move on, reorganizing the force and moving onto the next floor.

  We crush the next few floors, until we get another fun surprise on the twentieth floor.

  Once again, we are met with legends, this time only Uak and Geoff. I wonder why the other zone 2 legend is missing. Perhaps Luna’s faction hasn't managed to slay it yet?

  We still have no clue what they are up to. We have been simply ignoring the problem, hoping that by the time we conqueror this keep that something good will happen.

  Can you really blame us though? Even Ray and I aren't insane enough to want to go into forests where everyone dies and wakes up screaming in agony and terror.

  Disregarding Luna for the moment, we quickly engage Uak and Geoff.

  Most of our high-levels were with us during the legend raids, and many of our great levels were too. So we quickly figure out strategies and move in on the attack.

  Rigar, Linda and I lead forces to take on Geoff.

  I use my {Rock Crush} and {Rock Shell} liberally, turning the guy’s own commendation against him. It's quite ironic when you think about it.

  Between Rigar’s hammer, Linda’s rifle and my inae propelled spear, we make quick work of Geoff. We chunk off huge sections, and easily dodge any rocks that he tries to throw. Fighting bosses is always easier the second time around. Once you've got the patterns down, it becomes almost trivial.

  Ray and Emil’s blades make quick work of Uak. They even manage to dodge the all powerful quacks.

  After we are done, Ray walks over to me with a hand behind her back. “Ko, look at me.” She says, as though I could look at anything else. She grabs my face with her hand and then quickly moves to put something in my hair. “Ohmygosh, that looks so good on you, darling!”

  I take a look through my perception field and it appears that she has placed a few of Uak’s feathers in my hair. It really doesn't look that bad, but I don't think it's a style I can fully make use of.

  “Its not bad, but I think they would look much better on you, darling.” I say.

  “Well then, here you go.” she says, handing me another feather. I gently take it and put it in her hair. When I am done, she gives a nice spin, which is super duper cute. Definitely worth many headrubs, if only we weren't in the middle of a very serious tower.

  I lean in close and whisper, “You look beautiful darling.” Then I somewhat gently kiss her.

  “Darling, that's not fair, you're too good at this.” She says, her cheeks painted a nice rosy color.

  “Fair doesn't win wars. So, ima be as unfair as I can.” I say while giving her a few pats on the head – careful not to disturb the feather.

  Someone nearby coughs and ruins our moment.

  We quickly continue onto the next floors, quickly clearing them. At long last we reach the top floor, the twenty fifth. Which has yet another fun challenge.

  Several dozen dragons surround three massive dragons, which must be majors. The moment we step into the room, all three of them speak.

  “How dare you seek to challenge our majesty.” Says a green one.

  “You shall burn, foolish interlopers.” Says the blue one.

  “Prepare to die before the might of the queen’s praetorian guards.” Says the yellow one.

  “Hey darling, let's show these overgrown lizards what real power looks like.” Ray says, offering me her hand, which I gladly take and hold tightly.

  “It seems like a diced lizard is on the menu for tonight’s feast.” I say, which elicits a cheer from our soldiers.

  Ray and I claim the yellow dragon, since it seems the most noble and righteous.

  We rush in and Ray gives me a nice push, which I boost further with inae. I impact yellow’s side with a great crash as my spear shatters a large section of its scales.

  “Worthless beings, how dare you harm me!” yellow roars.

  “Havent ya heard, I'm like a genius or something, and my darling over there is like the cutest in the whole universe by the way. We are far from worthless.” I shout, a mischievous smile on my face.

  This only seems to anger yellow. They try to bite and swat at us, but we simply evade all of their attacks. Somehow its almost as though they are moving in slow motion. Or perhaps we have simply gotten that fast during this trial. We have clearly improved, but it's hard to understand exactly how much.

  Ray’s blades flash in a whirlwind as she slices and dices all of the weak spots. I repeatedly dash in and out, shattering more and more of yellow’s scales and leaving many holes in its precious armor. Which only gives Ray more and more places to attack, her plasma blades absolutely shredding the exposed flesh without the protection of the scales.

  All around us, explosions and the clash of blades on scales can be heard as the others fight their own dragons. The full display of the Moonlight Alliance’s best fighters must be truly mesmerising, I bet everyone is avidly watching their screens in complete fascination.

  With a great shout, Ray and I simultaneously attack yellow’s neck. Unable to resist us, yellow simply seems to give up, having lost all confidence in its abilities.

  With a great roar of effort and a super powered slice from Ray, we manage to cleave all the way through its neck, beheading the great beast. Around the room, we notice that all of the other dragons are also about dead, crumbling under the combined weight of our soldiers.

  “Ko, we are awesome, aren't we?” Ray says, completely covered in dragon blood and guts and with more than a few scorch marks on her armor.

  I, looking not much better, replied, “Of course we are awesome. We are the Moonlight Duo after all. Plus you are super duper cute, which easily fills the awesome meter to the max by itself.” I wrap my arms around Ray, giving her a big hug, though foregoing a kiss due to not wanting to open my helmet to smell all the horrific smells that are no doubt surrounding us.

  “Darling, you're just as cute and awesome as I, if not moreso.” Ray says, hugging me back.

  We stay like that for a while, embracing while explosions and blood rain all around us, the roaring and screaming of soldiers and dragons alike in the background.

  I am sure that whatever this dragon queen has to offer, Ray and I will overcome it, together. After all, how hard can it possibly be? We are the Moonlight Duo, nothing can stand against us. So, bring it on.

  End of Chapter 123

  Next: Chapter 124 | Nine Lives

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